^NO. 42. — 1891.] ANCIENT INDUSTRIES. 



59 



such dainties as the cook and the confectioner could prepare 

 irom such simple materials as they could command for the 

 refined taste of regal and priestly palates. 



In a work written as the Mahdwansa was, at least as 

 regards the period under review, by priests, for the purpose of 

 recording the introduction and progress of the Buddhist 

 religion in the Island, evidence respecting the industries of 

 the people is sparse, generally indirect, and mostly incidental, 

 but it is not the less reliable on that account. On the 

 contrary, in its record of the events connected with Buddhism 

 the history is characterised iby manifest exaggeration of an 

 Oriental type, whereas its references to other^ matters are 

 apparently free from that fault, in which indeed the writer 

 had little, if any, temptation to indulge. Several of the tanks 

 that are mentioned exist to this day, and bear out fully the 

 allusions and descriptions in the text. The ruins of several 

 dagabas also witness to the accuracy of the record. Hence 

 the signs and indications of great wealth, skill, and resource 

 are indisputable, and the means by which that wealth was 

 acquired are to be inferred with certainty from such passages 

 and events as have just been quoted, and they might be 

 multiplied indefinitely. The pursuit of agriculture by 

 princes and people, though not once stated directly, is plainly 

 implied in many passages besides those above quoted. For 

 instance, when Devanampiya Tissa marked the boundaries of 

 the ground that was to be consecrated he did it with a 

 golden plough, and he is represented as himself holding the 

 plough shaft. 



Similarly , the simple statement that the rice boiler of Duttha 

 Oamani's gilt palace had a golden ladle is an unmistakable 

 indication that rice was the food of the prince and peasant, 

 as is elsewhere abundantly shown. The passage in which 

 that trivial but significant fact occurs is worth quoting at 

 length, as follows : — 



"The king caused it (the gilt palace) to be provided 

 suitably with couches and chairs of great value, and in like 

 manner with carpets of woollen fabric, even the ladle of the 



